Google Photos Now Recognises Your Pets

Highlights

Similar functionality has long been available for humans

Technology can't differentiate between two dogs of the same breed

Creating movies or photo book starring the pet is also easy

Google Photos can now tell when a picture has a dog or any other pet, the company said, adding that it will also be sorting them into their own groupings. The announcement further concretes the machine learning advancements Google is making as it improves its services.

According to Google, users will now be able to see photos of their dogs and cats grouped alongside people. Users can also label them by name, as well as quickly look up for their dogs or cats, or the photos in which all of them are together.

The company says it is rolling out the new feature in "most countries." Google began creating car and dogs videos from the photos people shared in Google Photos library in May this year. Creating movies or photo book starring the pet is also easy. Users are required to tap on the new photo group featuring their pet, select photos and click on the "+" button.

Used by over 500 million users, Google Photos is one of the most popular smartphone apps out there. It was introduced in 2015, and several of its top selling features, such as the ability to recognise a person, are quickly trickling down to other services. Apple's Photos app, for instance, also offer this functionality.

As for the pets recognition feature, Google tells BuzzFeed News that it should be able to differentiate between different breeds of an animal, however, it might run into an issue telling between, say, three Dalmatians. In such case, Google suggests users to have a look at the app and remove photos of a misgrouped pet.